The dockworkers strike that has shut down dozens of ports on the East and Gulf Coasts has reportedly triggered panic buying of toilet paper and paper towels at a Costco on Staten Island — despite experts’ insistence that paper products won’t be affected by the strike.
Video footage on Wednesday showed vast, empty shelves of toilet paper, paper towels and facial tissues. One segment posted by FreedomNews.TV shows just a few pallets of Kleenex at the Costco on Richmond Avenue near the Staten Island Mall.
Entire shelves of toilet paper, meanwhile, were completely cleared out, revealing a long, empty wall behind them.
“Everyone came out because they’re worried about the strike,” the shopper who identified herself as Josephine told the outlet. “You gotta get the milk, the bread and the eggs but they came out for the paper towels, too.”
The shopper said that she wasn’t worried yet but “I will be worried in another week.”
“I think the strike should be over [and] I think the president should shut it down because this is going to hurt the economy,” she said, adding: “By the time Christmas comes, everybody is going to be broke.”
Experts say the panic buying is unnecessary given that an estimated 90% of toilet paper sold in the US is produced domestically and is not imported while the rest is made in either Canada or Mexico — meaning that it is brought into the country either through rail or trucks, not ships.
The Post has sought comment from the Staten Island Costco.
Social media users on X posted several photos and videos of store shelves in Virginia and New Jersey showing empty shelves that once houses rolls of toilet paper and paper towels.
Shelves at Costco & Target running low or out of paper towels in Monmouth Cty. #NJ. Seeing ppl buying TP & water too in reax to #portstrike2024 -Costco employee told me they were sold out of TP/paper towels this am. What are you seeing at your #NJ store? Post pics & location
pic.twitter.com/ugFDzPKpHt
— Jen Icklan Eckert (@jicklan) October 1, 2024
The port strike will have an immediate impact on perishable goods such as bananas as well as cherries, cocoa and sugar, most of which is imported.
Toilet paper and paper towels are non-perishable.
President Biden, who has the power under federal law to order the dockworkers back to work, has said he will not intervene.
Instead, he urged the union and the group representing port managers to hammer out a new collective bargaining agreement.
The strike entered its third day on Thursday with no signs that the two sides were any closer to a deal.
The International Longshoremen’s Association and its 50,000 members, led by President Harold Daggett, walked off the job demanding that management agree to a ban on automation as well as significant wage hikes.
Daggett, who lives in a 7,000-square-foot mansion in a leafy part of New Jersey, has vowed to “cripple” the US economy, which stands to lose billions of dollars as a result of a prolonged work stoppage.
A prolonged strike could result in shortages and higher prices for electronics, auto parts, medicines, European beer and spirits and European cars that are brought in from abroad through the ports.
